Review/Film; 2 Old Sisters and a Love Interest for One

By JANET MASLIN

Published: October 12, 1989

The best that can be said for ''An Unremarkable Life,'' the genteel soap opera opening today at Cinema 2, is that it strikes a blow against prejudice, provincialism, depression, loneliness and fear of the unknown. The worst to be said is that the blow lands with an awful thud.

The film concerns two instantly familiar sisters, Franny (Patricia Neal) and Evelyn (Shelley Winters), who share a household and live with their memories. They dance the Charleston together, remember long-gone romance (as the background music plays ''Daisy, Daisy'') and complain about the younger generation.

Franny is sweet, decent and docile; Evelyn is timid, pious, prone to self-pity and someone who would agree with Archie Bunker on many important matters. Evelyn doesn't like foreigners. So she is horrified when Franny takes up with Max (Mako), a jolly Asian auto mechanic from the wrong side of town. Max laughs a lot. (''It used to be a mom-and-pop grocery - now it's a bar, hahahahaha.'') Franny does too. (''I'm what they call an old-maid schoolteacher, hahahaha.'') This merriment sets the tone of their innocent friendship. They go out for ice cream sundaes; they bowl; they do the conga. On one of their spicier dates they are playing Monopoly when Max's cutthroat gamesmanship creates a momentary suggestion that he may be a wolf in sheep's clothing, hoping to do the sisters out of their handsome old home. But ''An Unremarkable Life,'' with a title that amply conveys its featureless drabness, isn't that kind of film.

The fuss that erupts after Max arrives is about as surprising as ice in winter, since neither Marcia Dinneen's screenplay nor Amin Q. Chaudhri's direction ever takes chances. Evelyn: ''I will not become a servant to some Chinese playboy!'' Max: ''Franny, I know I'm not much to look at, but I'd be honored if . . .'' Franny: ''All my life I've done exactly what was expected of me. . . . I'll be damned if I let this last opportunity slip away!''

Ms. Neal at least manages to give Franny some foxy charm, and she can bark out a line like ''That is enough!'' in an utterly commanding way. Ms. Winters has a more difficult time suggesting helplessness and is saddled with some of the screenplay's outstandingly impossible lines (''Truth, like oil, must rise to the surface''). Both actresses perform broadly, as if trying to address a hearing-impaired audience. Perhaps they are.

''An Unremarkable Life'' is rated PG (''Parental Guidance Suggested''). There are a few infinitesimally naughty lines of dialogue. THE LAST CHANCE FOR A FLING - AN UNREMARKABLE LIFE, directed and produced by Amin Q. Chaudhri; written by Marcia Dinneen; director of photography, Alan Hall; edited by Sandi Gerling; music by Avery Sharpe; production designer, Norman B. Dodge Jr.; released by SVS Films and Continental Films Group Ltd. At Cinema 2, Third Avenue at 60th Street. Running time: 92 minutes. This film is rated PG. Frances McEllany...Patricia Neal Evelyn...Shelley Winters Max Chin...Mako